Julia's research is focused on active hydromechanical systems. She tries to understand fundamental processes, such as the interrelation of sedimentation, deformation, and porous media fluid flow and the evolution of physical rock properties (compressibility, permeability, anisotropy, etc.) with increasing consolidation.

To address these questions on a basin-scale, Julia focuses on areas in the Gulf of Mexico offshore Texas and Louisiana. She uses a suite of different data sets from the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 308, which she participated in as an onboard sedimentologist, e.g. seismic and logging data, in situ pressure and temperature measurements as well as sedimentological and geotechnical measurements performed on cores. Julia runs uniaxial consolidation experiments in the UT GeoMechanics Lab to describe the compression and permeability behavior and to predict in situ pore fluid pressures.

Julia is particularly interested in the mechanical behavior of mudstones, which comprise nearly 75% of the volume of sedimentary systems but are still not well understood. Their relatively low permeability and high compressibility drive the generation of subsurface overpressure and fluid flow, which in turn can cause submarine landslides that have the potential for causing tsunamis. Additionally, large amounts of gas are trapped in formations of mudstones that form unconventional reservoirs. Mudstones are also a key cap rock for CO2 sequestration and subsurface hydrocarbons and, when overpressured, can pose a hazard for offshore oil platforms.

As part of the UT GeoFluids Consortium, she currently studies how composition controls compression and permeability behavior of mudstones. To address this problem she uses a systematic approach; she prepares synthetic mudstones in the laboratory under controlled conditions and of known composition using a method called 'resedimentation', which was first developed at MIT. The used materials are a natural occurring Boston Blue Clay and silt-sized silica that she adds together in varying proportions. Then she consolidates the samples uniaxially using a constant-rate-of-strain consolidation device. Both compressibility and permeability vary significantly as a function of clay fraction.

Schneider et al. (Geology, 2011)

Julia recently developed a model that predicts permeability and compressibility of these mixtures. The model has large implications as it applies to other materials when recalibrated based on at least two samples, predicting permeability and compressibility over the entire porosity and clay fraction spectrum. It could also be used in logging, perhaps even in real time.

The potential of this work was recognized by the ocean drilling community when she received the Schlanger Ocean Drilling Fellowship Award, the most prestigious fellowship available in this field. Current projects involve mudstones from deepwater environments such as the Gulf of Mexico and particularly the Nankai Trough, offshore Japan. Julia is an onshore scientist of the IODP Expedition 322. She is currently performing resedimentation and uniaxial consolidation experiments on samples composed of mudstones from IODP 322 and silt-sized silica to study the control of composition on permeability and compressibility in a deepwater environment. She is performing those tests to high stresses (up to several tens of Megapascals) that represent burial depths of several kilometers under hydrostatic conditions.